In what is one of the hardest things in sports, NPB teams around the league announced players who will not be offered a contract for 2020 with their preliminary senryokugai lists this past week. On Thursday, the Saitama Seibu Lions announced nine players who were part of the preliminary cuts.
The nine players include P Hayato Takagi, P Hirotaka Koishi, P Tatsuya Oishi, IF Kazuki Kaneko, OF Shogo Saito, P Jen-Lei Liao, P Chun-Lin Kuo, P Naoaki Matsumoto and P Tadasuke Minamikawa.
Takagi, 30, was the free agent compensation selection by the Lions for the loss of Ryoma Nogami. Since being in the Pacific League, he was nothing but a disappointment and only saw two ichi-gun games in 2019, being lit up both times in mop up duty.
Koishi, 32, was mostly in the Lions bullpen eating innings in low leverage. When the Lions were trailing several times in 2016, he had a career-high 74.2 innings. This past season, he fell out of favor with others leaping him on the depth chart.
Oishi, who turns 31 this week, will be remembered as one of the biggest draft busts in franchise history. Six teams wanted his services in the 2010 NPB Draft and the Lions won the rights when Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe drew the winning ticket. Injuries derailed his career early on and he never recovered. He produced a decent 2016 as a reliever, but couldn't stay at the ichi-gun consistently after that.
Saito, 30, was mostly a fourth outfielder and had a peak season in 2015 with 103 games appeared in. He never played more than 60 ichi-gun games after that and couldn't hit his way back.
Kaneko, 24, was a high school draft pick in 2013. He was briefly called up in 2018 when an injury to Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura was injured and did well for six games. However, he struggled in ni-gun this past year and Ryusei Sato took the reserve infielder spot at the ichi-gun, making him expendable.
Kuo, 27, was an amateur signing out of Taiwan who won his debut in 2015. Once in NPB, his control and location problems were exposed and he never got better. He saw 79.2 innings while being in the rotation for his first season, but never reached 25 ichi-gun innings after that and was only used as a spot starter.
Liao, 26, was a free agent signing after the Yomiuri Giants decided to not bring him back last year. He saw three ichi-gun games to pitch three innings in mop up duty last April, but stayed in ni-gun for the rest of the year.
Matsumoto, who turns 29 next month, was the 10th round draft pick by the Lions in 2015 while also being the last player called before the ikusei draft. He saw several mop up innings throughout his career and reached a career-high 24 innings in 2018. His time diminished to four games in 2019 in favor of others.
Minamikawa, 27, was a 5th round shakaijin draft pick in 2015. He saw minimal ichi-gun time each season, but couldn't establish himself once he was called up. In 2019, he only had one ichi-gun appearance and failed to record an out while also allowing an earned run in low leverage. He finished this past season with an infinite ERA.
Even for my expectations, this is a high number of players cut through the first wave. Teams will make a second wave of senryokugai moves after the Japan Series, but with nine players removed, it wouldn't surprise me if this is what the Lions intend to do the whole time.
With nine roster spots freed up, the Lions can draft the quantity they want later this month. There are now at least 15 roster spots open with the assumption that Ernesto Mejia will not return while other imports are still uncertain for 2020. We wish these players the best of luck in their future endeavors.
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